Mathematics and the Big Data Day

Last month four of our Year 12 students attended the Big Data Challenge Day run by the Monash Business School at Monash University Clayton Campus. The purpose of this day is to allow strong mathematicians to see how their abilities can be applied to the increasing complex world of commerce. The day started with an entertaining talk from the Dean of the Faculty where he explained how data analytics can be used to assist in both understanding and managing a variety of business events. Who would have thought that this was instrumental in recognising that the AFL needed to change the draft to make the competition more appealing to the fans!

The students were placed into teams with students from other schools with a mentor who is a student studying in that field at Monash and they worked in one of the areas of:

• Actuarial Science
• Business Analytics
• Econometrics

The girls have written a little about their day below:

On 29 April, Zeyi (Zoe) Yu (Year 12), Lily Li (Year12), Man In (Rachael) Ung (Year 12) and Samantha Furnell (Year 12) attended the Big Data Day at Monash University. Zoe and Rachael participated in the Actuarial Science field for the day. They designed a contract for protecting employees from the changing market due to the effects of climate change. Samantha and Lily; participated in the Business Analytics section of the competition. They used their Mathematics and coding abilities to produce a computer program to forecast the impacts of rising sea levels on the community. Samantha was part of the winning team for Business Analytics and she was given a Monash ‘hoodie’. This experience gave the girls an insight into these fields and is a valuable experience for anyone interested in Commerce.  All the girls enjoyed the experience and challenges that the day provided. The girls would like to thank Mrs Janette Matt for organising the day and accompanying them to Monash.